His Replacement
by Netbug-Archive
Summary: Sometimes the courage of one person can give courage to others. AU. Takes place after The Ultimate Enemy. T for safety. Possible JazzDash.
1. Endings

Wow, this brings back some memories. This is my first time doing a DP multi-chapter fic in YEARS. Hopefully, I've gotten better. I think I have, and boy do I hope so. Years ago I came here bearing Mary Sues, bad spelling, and otherwise cruddy fics. Why didn't any of you tell me darnit?! XD

Anyways, this is a plot bunny adopted from Firefury. It's an AU fic having to do with the Ultimate Enemy. I don't think Firefury is expecting the crazy stunt I'm gonna pull with this thing though. It's got quite an odd premise to it as you'll see eventually. I don't wanna give away much more than that, so I'm gonna shut up now and let you guys read. Please enjoy. Honest critique is appreciated, especially since I'm a bit rusty in this fandom.

Disclaimer: I don't own DP. I didn't create it either. Nick and Butch are two people/companies I am not. I just wrote this fic using a plot bunny Firefury was kind enough to let me adopt.

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His Replacement

By Netbug009

Chapter 1

The heat continued to rise, and so did Danny's fears. He was unable to fully focus on his fight with his future self, distracted by the possibility of everybody he cared about soon being blown to pieces. Yet, at the same time, that same worry is what made him stronger.

Soon it was over. Soon his thermos closed on his old future. But his foe's last words had hit him hard. Was he really too late? No... **No! **His eyes widened as the sauce was getting ready to blow.

"**No!"**

His body may has well have moved on it's own. He ran towards his loved ones, leaping into the air. Flying to move more quickly.

To this day, the events are still hard to recall for the survivors. Danny flying towards them, their release from the bonds, and the explosion all happened only seconds apart if even that long.

They stood, the bonds slipping off of them to the ground as they got a better look at the fiery inferno they had almost been caught in. Looking at one another, and seeing they were all accounted for, they sighed in relief, but only for a moment.

Of course, all accounted for was the status of the captives alone. But... where was the hero?

That's when they gasped in terror. He couldn't have... could he?

As if a sign to confirm their worst fear, a burnt piece of fabric moved up to Jack's shoe, blown out of the inferno and pushed to them slowly by the wind. The cloth was black in color. He looked at it sadly, silently, and full of guilt for his behavior towards the hero. He moved his thumbs on the surface of the remains of a hero's outfit.

His eyes almost immediately grew wide.

The fabric was not truly black, but it simply looked black from the ashes. The place his thumb had been moved from was now red. He dusted it off the rest of the way and say a white piece of fabric with a red circle in the center. "Maddie! Look!"

So began mass grief in Amity Park. After all, the townsfolk were going to wonder about both Danny's going missing at the exact same time. Once Maddie and Jack fully understood their son's secret life themselves via Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, the city was told the truth. The truth was that the ghost some of them had hated was a human child, and the human child some of them had been jerks to was a hero. Few faces left the assembly without guilt covering their faces. On the faces of the popular teens of Casper High, this guilt was even more so.

Of course, that wasn't the biggest problem.

* * *

Ugh. That did not come out as good as I was hoping it would. And I have a horrible feeling in my gut that something in this does not fit the time line the story has. Still, you guys get the gist of the situation we're starting with, right?

Another (and I hope BETTER) chapter soon.


	2. Lock Down

Chapter 2

"Today has been a day of massive chaos in Amity Park," The newscaster said. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz sat on couches in the living room of Fenton works, watching television. It had been a good month since Danny had died, and yet it still felt weird to be siting inside watching chaos rather than being in the middle of it with the former hero.

Pictures of ghosts in combat with humans flashed on the screen as the newscaster continued. "Ghost attacks have been up lately. While ghost fighting groups have been working to stop the foes, it is still harder than it has ever been to keep the town safe, and the threat only seems to be growing. The major has recommended that citizens install ghost shields on their homes, or stay at a home that has a shield until they can afford to install one for themselves. Also, minors are prohibited from leaving their homes unless necessary to move to a safer location."

Sam turned off the TV. There were no protests from the other two. While the majority of homes in Amity Park were now shielded, Fenton Works had become a sort of safe house for many. The trio that had helped Danny in his battles were not the only ones sulking in the living room. Along with them were several of Danny's classmates. None of them protested either. Nobody wanted to hear it anymore.

"If Danny was here, this wouldn't be happening," Kwan said, sinking into the couch cushion sadly.

"Yeah! And they won't even let us help fight! What do they think we are, 10?" Jazz crossed her arms.

"Way to state the obvious you two," Sam said angrily.

"Chill out Sam. You're not the only one stressed out here," Tucker said.

"Yeah Sam. You need to chill out for once," Paulina added.

"Oh, so now the little princess is trying to boss me around," Sam crossed her arms. "Why should I be calm? Danny was my best friend! He..." Sam's expression went from angry to sad. "Maybe he... was more than that. I don't know... But whether he was or wasn't, why should I pretend I don't care? It's better than sitting here like a rock and pretending nothing matters to me!"

The group was silent at Sam's comment for a moment.

"...You know, she's right," Jazz finally said. "I think we're all thinking the same thing. Sam just said it before we did."

"**Will you guys just shut up?!**"

Everybody turned to Dash, who had yelled at the top of his lungs. "For crying out loud, you're all a bunch of babies! Yeah, he's gone. Get over it! We survived before he was here ya know!" Dash didn't wait for a reply and stormed down into the lab, which was currently filled with visitor's sleeping bags. Angry yells flew in his direction came afterwards, protesting what he had said, and only stopped with the door opened.

"Geez, that was a close one!" Jack Fenton said, walking in the door with his wife. They were fully stocked with ghost hunting gear, some of which was now looking damaged.

Jazz ran up to her parents and hugged them both. "Glad to see you guys are okay. We were watching the news and it sounds like it's getting bad out there."

"It is," Maddie said gloomily. "I don't know what we're going to do if it keeps getting worse and worse like this." She wiped the sweat from her forehead. "But, things seem secure for now! It's late. You kids get to bed. Jack and I are going to head up to the op center and take shifts watching for ghost attacks."

"Okay." Jazz said. The others headed down to the lab, and Jazz was about to head upstairs to her room, when she stopped and turned back to her parents. "Hey, Mom? Can I bunk with the rest of the group tonight?"

Maddie raised an eyebrow. "If you want to do that, I don't see why not."

"Thanks Mom," Jazz said, and headed upstairs to get her sleeping bag.

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I'm kinda meh about this chapter. Apparently I'm still have a bit of trouble getting my DP spirit to work with me. The good news is, the awkwardness is starting to feel like it's coming off, so hopefully the next chapter gets me in full swing.

Of course, grief is also a hard thing to write about, especially in a case like this. I've been through grief, so I know what it's like, and yet I don't. Everybody grieves differently, so I had to take various personalities into thought. I really think I could have been more dramatic with this, but it just didn't work out that way, and I'm in a balancing act of making it seem like realistic grief without turning it into a mushy gushy angst fest. That was especially hard for me, seeing how usually that's exactly what I do, and it's okay in first person one shots, which is what I usually do when there's angst involved. Writing angst in third person is a new thing to me apparently. Yikes. And keeping the main theme of an adventure story at the focus. There's also the issue of trying to foreshadow, but not too much.

Man, rusty fandom, lots of characters, and complex plot. I haven't had a challenge like this in a while. This is gonna be fun. :D

Please review! I love to hear what my reader's think of my work. :)


	3. Group Discussion

Chapter 3

"Amity Park still needs a hero."

It wasn't like Jazz was telling the other teens anything they didn't know. She was right. In fact, deep down most of them had been thinking the same thing. She had simply been the first one to get the nerve to voice it.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Tucker asked after a moment as the majority of the refugees huddled around the senior. Jazz remained silent, finding herself at an internal crossroad. Starting the conversation to begin with meant she only had moments now to choose a path. On one hand, the others probably were not going to like what she was about to say. On the other hand, they were all patiently waiting for her to say it, and after the attention she had drawn to herself already, she wasn't going to hear the end of it by simply saying "oh, never mind." Also, if this didn't get said, what other options were there? She took a deep breath.

"We need a new hero to take Danny's place."

The group turned to Sam, who had just snatched to words from Jazz's tongue. She had also stolen her former teammate's depressed expression. "I mean, nobody can ever replace Danny, but..."

Jazz walked up to Sam and put a hand on her shoulder. "I think we know what you mean." They both smiled.

"Will you guys shut up already?"

Again, the group moved their attention to a different teen. This one was cocooned in a large sleeping bag in the corner. Sam glared in his direction. "Dash, why don't you give it a rest?"

"I would rest if I could, but you guys and your 'Fenturd this' and 'Fenturd that blah blah blah' how do you expect anybody to sleep with you guys having your pity party over there?" Dash sat up and turned to Sam. "We did fine before he showed up, and we'll do fine now that he's gone once everybody stops whining and freaking out, or am I the only one in here who has any guts? Wouldn't surprise me."

"What's your problem?"

"What's _your_ problem?!"

Both teens crossed their arms and turned away from one another in a huff.

"I think we're all tired," Jazz commented, wedging her way back into the discussion. "Let's just take a break and come back to this tomorrow after school. Maybe some time to think will bring up new ideas even."

Everybody silently agreed and headed back to their sleeping bags.

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A few hours later, Jazz awoke to use the restroom. Several voices touched the air, filling it with light sounds of whimpering. Some we're grieving, some were afraid, and some were just depressed because everybody else was, but it all made the same noise when it hit the sibling's ears. 

When she reached the stairs, she turned back for a second, eyebrow raised, because she could swear that the cornucopia of nighttime mourners included Dash Baxter. She shrugged off the idea and continued upstairs.

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Wow, this looked longer in my notebook. Ah, well. 


	4. Final Answer

checks the last time she updated this ...Wow? That long? o.o Sorry guys. I'm not great at updating quickly. And to make things worse, the WALL-E fandom ate me. XD

GOSEEITITROCKS.

Oh, and you may notice I changed the summary a bit to mention that I may do some mild JazzDash in this thing. I'd like to apoligize to anybody whose been reading this and hates the idea. I really prefer to say pairings before I start to avoid that, but this time I really didn't know what I was gonna do there. So sorry if you're gonna run for the hills now and feel like these first three chapters of reading was a waste of time. (sweatdrop)

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**Chapter 4**

"Hey! You there! Can we push you through the Fenton Portal and make you go fight off all the ghosts that have taken over the town?"

Sam's question was, of course, a complete mock. "Tucker, that's a horrible idea."

"Well, it was just a suggestion," Tucker replied. "You got any better ideas?"

"We can't put all the pressure on somebody like that, Tucker! If we did create a new phantom, it'd have to be one of us."

Jazz's comment was incredibly sobering, and the trio all stopped dead in the middle of the Casper High hallway. After all, putting the pressure on somebody else was a much easier task than taking it for yourself. All three of them gulped and looked at one another. "Uh..." Tucker said, breaking the silence. "One, two, three, not it?"

"Har har." Sam crossed her arms. "What's your next suggestion Tucker? Turn off the ghost shield and whoever lives the longest gets pushed in the portal?"

"Hey! At least I have ideas!" He glared at Sam, who simply returned the gesture until Jazz came between them.

"Guys, come on." the oldest said empathetically. "Nobody is ready for this. We're all still in the early stages of grief. We're being forced to try and fix things at a time when it's not healthy to be. Under normal circumstances, this would be a time of talking and letting our feeling out and-"

"Jazz, in case you haven't noticed, we don't have time for your physiology," Sam interjected. "We don't have time for any of this. Why are they even putting us back in school? Ghost shield or not, we should be focused on saving the town and only saving the town. I don't need to grieve, and I don't need bad ideas either!"

Tucker and Jazz simply watched as Sam stormed off. You could hear the sound of a locker being kicked after she went around the corner. The two left standing there gave each other a worried glance. Tucker started to go after her, but Jazz held him back by the shoulder. "She needs time. We all do."

"But we don't _have_ that time. Sam was right."

"I know. That's why I'm going to let you guys have some time. I'm going in the portal."

Tucker slid away from Jazz and looked at her wide eyed. "Woah, back up. You sure you want to do that?"

"Well, who else is going to? And I have experience with fighting ghosts. Do I really have a choice?"

"Well, it's up to you Jazz. Just, promice you'll make sure to think it through a little, okay?"

Wow. Of all people to be telling her to think things through. "I already have, and I'm gonna do it."

With that, Jazz split off from Tucker towards her class. Tucker wondered silently if this was the last time he'd see Jazz completely human.

* * *

"So you haven't seen him?" Kwan asked.

"No. I was going to ask if you had." Paulina replied.

Jazz couldn't help but overhear the conversation as she walked past the two in the hallway. "Wait, somebody is missing at a time like this?!"

"Yeah," Paulina replied. "We haven't seen Dash since yesterday."

Jazz's eyes widened slightly, full of worry. What if he was about to be another casualty? He wouldn't the first, but he would be the first she knew, and the first student at Casper High. "...I have to go find him. Where did you guys last see him?"

"Back at your guys house," Kwan replied. Jazz didn't wait for another word before heading that direction. Good place for him to be in trouble. She needed to head that direction anyway.

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**Honest reviews are appreciated! I love hearing from my readers! Thank you! :)**


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